Still light out although the sun is low in the south-west so I come back down with my camera to record the afternoons work on an old dead white oak that I had been planning on taking down for several months now. The small 'dry creek' (dry in the summer but running strong after storms or weak like today from the continual bouts of mild precipitation) was what had held me up - in my mind more than anything - for the old tree was leaning across it such that no other throw was possible. Even though I had notched the tree on the leaning side and then sawed at a slight angle from the back through to the so called hinge so that the tree would fall properly, there was a weakness in the wood which caused the tree to break through above the hinge pivot. Luckily the tough tight sinews of wood held as they did and there was no sudden 'blow back' of the entire tree - my luck in things is small in the scheme of things but I didn't even come close to being cranked badly by an amok tree.
